Smugglers Cove (Love2write and Silence)

Groaning a little at the tap on his cheek he opened his eyes and stared at her for a moment. Taking the bottle in one hand he nodded. "Alright let's move." His head had started to pound and he wasn't feeling any better. In fact maybe a little worse. Opening the bottle he took a quick swig and capped it again. Seemed that the girl had thought he would need a cart. A mildly amused grin came to his face. "Oh I think I'll walk just fine." Sitting on the edge of the cart he stuffed the pillow under his injured arm and reached for the blanket. "You tie this around me. Make it firm and that'll keep my arm from moving." The pillow would help absorb some of the impact of walking.

Besides the faster they could move the better. Wincing a little he adjusted his arm once the blanket was tied around him. It draped from over his injured arm and tied under his other. Then the other corners had tied just at his waist. Helped keep him warm too.

The blood on his good hand had crusted over by now and he made a fist. It pulled on the skin and then the blood cracked. Rubbing his fingers together he tried to rub as much blood off as possible. They were barely reaching the outskirts of the city and he started to get tired again. "So do you know of a water source that's upstream from the city?" With a quarantine recently or even not so recently he didn't want to drink anything that would be possibly contaminated. "You know this bottle won't last forever."

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By the time they reached the outskirts of the city he was getting frustrated. "A desert." That was exactly what it had to be. "Oh excuse me...semi desert." There wasn't enough water for trees and barely enough for the nasty sharp tipped shrubbery that grew on the ground. "You been here before?" For some reason he kept getting the idea the lady had possibly been familiar with the region.
 
Star did her best to support Killian as he walked but his pride wouldn't allow him to take the help. Men...always so stubborn. She hadn't been able to answer his question of water from outside the city. She didn't know and she didn't want to worry him by telling him she was pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference anyway if it really had been an airborne pathogen that had wiped out this ghost city. And not that long ago by the state of the bodies she'd seen.
Then he asked a strange question, "You been here before?"
"No...don't you think I'd have said something if I did." She scoffs, frowning at their predicament. Even as she replied, she couldn't shake the feeling that this place did feel familiar. Had she been here before as a child on one of her father's many missions? She searched through her memories of her many travels...but none matched what she was seeing.

The water bottle had already been drained, she'd made sure he'd drunk most of it...being that he was the one slowly bleeding to death he needed it far more than she did. Night was falling and the temperature was already dropping. "We should've stayed in the city for the night." She notes sourly, looking at the expanse of near empty desert before them. "We should go back. We won't last the night, much less a few days out there."
 
"Hmmm..." Killian just nodded. He was getting tired out and he figured it was a dumb question. Letting out a sigh he met the woman's gaze. "Now you wanna go back in the city. I don't even know what happened there." If there was one thing that scared him it was diseases. They weren't something you could fight in the normal fashion. Still she insisted on going back and he shook his head. "No...I'm not going back."

Taking a seat on the ground he started to gaze about. There had to be something around here. Somewhere that he could use as a burrow for the night. If nothing else they could dig into the earth and use the blanket as barrier to keep from suffocating. "This isn't the first time I've been stuck someplace." Tugging at the blanket he got the first knot undone and started on the second one. Now that the blanket was off he handed it to her. "If we don't find a little overhang or something like that in a little bit we'll dig a hole and spend the night in it."

While he stumbled along he looked for anything that might count as a shelter. Eventually he found a rock with a large enough gap under it. They would have to lay on their stomachs, but that was still better than nothing. "That will work...Flashlight?" Taking the light from her he shined it into the little cavern. Wasn't anything in it so he got to his knees and started to squirm into the hole. "It'll be a little cozy."

Sliding his free hand up he held onto his shoulder and moved his head a few times until it seemed he had found the most comfortable way to rest. He could feel the girl sliding in next to him. "Just put the blanket over us." They had the extra body heat of each other, the blanket, and the residual heat of the ground. While they may not freeze it probably wasn't going to be comfortable.
 
Star chuckles lightly as they shift next to each other. "You haven't even bought me dinner and we're already sleeping together." She teases, unable to hide the nervous tone in her voice. She looked around as if expecting something to jump out at them as the night drew closer.
Knowing she wasn't going to be able to relax and rest any time soon she decided to ask him some of the questions that had been on the forefront of her mind. "So, how'd you get the limp? Yeah, I've noticed it...you do pretty well at hiding it when you're not tired."
 
The girl's nervous tone only made him snort. "Huh...Fancy that. I'm a real lady killer. Might be a problem. The space in here. I can't fit anymore ladies in here." The captain turned his head away from her and tried to make a spot comfy in the sand. Instead he ended up breathing a few particles in. Pushing up on one elbow he coughed. Seemed that Star thought this was a good time to ask a few questions. "What? That's ridiculous I don't limp."

Grumbling a bit he laid down again. "Fine maybe I do a little bit." Hesitantly he started to answer her. "Accident a few years back. I was loading a few things and a crate tipped. Sort of crushed the leg and tore up the knee. Nice little combination." Closing his eyes he started to fall asleep. It was probably a good idea to ask her a few questions since she felt chatty. "How'd you decide to board my ship? You know other than wanting to get away from the alliance military?" He figured she should have known that it was a smugglers ship and they weren't easy targets. Some people mistakenly thought so, but that wasn't usually the case.
 
Star crosses her arms in front of her and rests her head on them. "I didn't have much a choice. The compliance officers were after me and there were only so many places to hide. Didn't even realize it was a smuggler ship till I was aboard. " She sighs lightly. "I knew I should've just stayed hidden but when the officer looked like he about to kill my ticket out of there I make a gut decision. Turned out to be the right one." She smiles lightly.
She looks at him then laughs. "I can't believe you don't have a better story going with that leg though. Dropping a crate on it is so lame. You could at least come up with some wild tale about chasing a girl,fighting off pirates or something like that."
 
"Uh huh. That guy wasn't nearly as close to getting me as you thought." Killian grunted at her and shifted again. He couldn't believe how hard it was to get comfortable. As for the crate she had to make fun of the story. "I didn't drop the crate it tipped over on me." It did sound stupid but that was usually how these things in life happened. "I'm not a very creative person when it comes to some things. Besides I don't think I could come up with a good story if I wanted to." Especially not when he felt like crap.

Her snickering was getting to be too much so he reached up with his good arm and pushed her face away. "No more of your cackling."

*********************************************************

The next morning the sun came up and a little bit of light trickled into the cavern they were hidden in. Killian moved to lay on his side and moaned. His shoulder was only getting worse. All of that was put aside when he saw a group of soldiers scanning the area. "Hey..." Pushing on the girl he started to crawl out of the cavern. "We got to run."
 
"Aw...crap." She groans, getting to her feet right behind Killian. The two of them take off across the desert trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the soldiers.
"Hey! Over there! Get them!" Star pulls her gun, ready to shoot should they get too close. They slide down a small embankment into a muddy creek and keep running. "We're not going to be able to outrun them." She states the obvious, turning and shooting at a soldier who'd taken a position to try and snipe them. The shot hits and he tumbles down the embankment, followed closely by his comrades who were now shooting at them as well. They round a small hill and a shanty town comes into view. It wasn't much, but it would provide at least a little bit of cover. "There...we can make a stand there." She gestures to it. The risk of them getting trapped and surrounded was big, but they had precious few options.
 
Stretching his legs Killian was a good several strides ahead of the girl. As he turned to shoot near an embankment she nudged him and he ended up sliding down the embankment. Making a lousy effort to get up he fell into the mud almost face first and then he managed to get himself back to his feet. "Ugh..." The two of them barely made it up the other side and she was pointing to a town a ways out.

Killian nodded to her. "Aye...That tower is what I'll take." He figured it would allow him time to pick a few men off. The only way he knew that he would get into that tower was to beat Star there. Being the height he was it didn't take too much effort to get places faster. Reaching the town he scrambled into the tower and gave Star some cover fire while she found someplace to hole up. About that time he got a little buzz in his ear piece.

"Captain you aren't gonna make it unless we make a run for you. If we land on the other side of the town could you be there in a short time?"

The captain looked around for where Star was. "Aye...We can make it. I'll just need to get a few more shots off. Maybe 5 minutes?" Dropping two more men he started scrambling down the ladder. At the base of it he yelled. "Star we got to get to the other end of town. The boys are coming for us."
 
"About time!" She yelled back up at him, letting off a few shots of her own. The clip dropped from her gun. "I'm out of ammo! Meet you on the other side." She dashes off, narrowly avoiding the solider's attacks.
The minutes pass too slowly, but finally Killian's beautiful ship touches down only a few yards away. Star dashes towards the opening and into the hanger of the ship then spins to see if Killian was close behind her.
 
The further he ran the harder it was getting to keep pace. Killian was having a hard time not coughing and his leg was beginning to give him problems. He could see that Star had already made her way into the ship and Mike was darting out right behind her. "You stay here!" Mike yelled to Star as he ran past and ducked under Killian's arm. "Adam get the engines going."

Racing from his spot at the door the navigator ran up the stairs and got the engines started. Mike barely got up the ramp as it started to lift and the hatch close. Inside the two men panted for a few moments.

A deep raspy laugh started from Killian. "That was close." They weren't anywhere near being safe. "Mike you got the engine room. I'll go take controls and Star why don't you prep the medical bay." They didn't have time to do it yet and getting out of danger was going to be the first order. The ship rocked as mortars flew all around it. One hit but, it hadn't been able to penetrate the shield. "I got a course laid out. Adam does it work for you?"

The navigator called back into his headset. "It'll work. Just hang on."

Knowing that it meant a fast turn Killian grabbed for the handle bar near his station. That had been installed shortly after he hired Adam. Everyone had one in every room.
 
Star was ready for the lurch this time when Adam took the ship for a crazy series of maneuvers to get them into the clear. When the ship stopped lurching Star went to work. She went over to the computer and activated the A.I. "Bullet wound...left shoulder." The A.I. gave her a list of items she needed to prep. By the time Killian limped into the infirmary Star was ready by the bed. Her face was pale and nervous.

She sat him down and pressed an I.V., of pain meds and saline solution to replenish his fluids, into his vein. "I've never pulled a bullet out of anyone. We should aim for the nearest station and get you a real doctor."
 
Killian half stumbled from his room and limped to the infirmary. Looked like it was all set out with instructions and he looked at her from half closed eyes. "Well there's a first for everything. I've got a procedure for this." Since the I.V. had been in a few minutes he felt a bit better. Still his shoulder hurt and he was covered in mud, blood, and sweat. "Hey Adam and Mike come into the infirmary." Talking into his mic he waited for a moment and then laid his head back. "They know what to do."

Both of the other crew members arrived and stared at Killian for a moment. Adam hadn't noticed that the captain was hit but Mike new. The older man went and grabbed a ruler off the counter and held it. Seemed that it barely moved. Handing it to Star next he noticed her hand was fairly steady and like usual Adam quivered like a leaf. Their pilot had never been much for the sight of blood. "Alright Adam get out of here." Mike nudged Killian. "Both the girl and I are steady."

"I didn't want a choice." Usually there was only one person that was steady and nobody got to make the choice. It was just the person most likely to succeed and that was usually Killian. So he had inevitably been the ship doctor for a while. "Well I guess Mikey you could do it. Pretty steady hands and...." His eyes got wide as he thought of something. "Hold your hands out." Looking at them both he nodded to Star. "You do it. Your hands are cleaner and smaller." Last thing he wanted was Mike to dig into the wound with his hands. "Mike just stay here and help her. I can tell both of you what to do."

Taking a breath he looked over at the screen. "Run the wand over me. You'll get an image of where the bullet is. Then you know if you need the bent pliers or straight ones." Mike started to dig through the cabinets looking for the tools. "Ok now..." Killian looked at Star. "So its the bent pliers. Have Mike hold the scanner so you can see when the pliers get there. Rest of its a piece of cake."
 
"Ha. Piece of cake...right." Star scoffs. Despite that she picks up the pliers, takes a deep breath and begins. Every pained grunt by Killian nearly made her jump. It would have been so much better if he was asleep, at the same time, his advice helped keep her calm and on the right track. A few minutes later she pulls the pliers out and the bullet with it. She breaths out, color returning to her face. "Oh thank god that's over..." She groans in relief. "Now's the easy part. Stitching." She chuckles.

With Mike's help the area around Killian's wound was fully cleaned, disinfected and stitched up with a pink thread, courtesy of Star. When that was complete, she covered the stitches with gauze and taped it down. "Well, Mike. Think he'll live?" She laughs in relief.
 
Killian had worked to keep himself mostly calm and breathing even during the little procedure. It still hurt and he couldn't help rolling his eyes when she mentioned the stitches. "Put a little more numbing stuff on it."

The Engineer reached into the cabinet. "Oh you mean the hemorrhoid cream?"

"No!" Trying to sit up on the bed Killian ended up falling right back into it. He was too dizzy with all the medications and Star helped him back down with a push. Naturally the older man had to crack a joke of sorts. "You know what a mean damn it." Within a few minutes the engineer returned with the little tube and it showed it to Killian before he gently dabbed some of it around the site. It would usually work for an area broader than what it touched. Since they had him all cleaned up around the wound and some more numbing agent on it the engineer smiled at Star. He wasn't going to say a thing about the pink stitches.

"We'll put the water proof bandaging on you and then you go get cleaned up the rest of the way." Soon as the lady was done Mike helped her tape everything on and then put the water proofing layer over it. The woman's reaction to all this was strange. Looking at her he shrugged. "Maybe. Should probably give him some antibiotics."

Mike sat around for a bit longer to be sure that Killian wasn't too dizzy to get up and shower. The captain was high as kite but, ready to get himself cleaned up after about an hour.
 
***

The next two days were spent in relative peace and quiet as Adam guided the ship to their next destination. Killian had spent most of the time sleeping with enough drugs in his system to keep him happily unaware of the pain. Star made sure to bring him home cooked meals three times a day and Adam would deliver a report of what was happening four times a day. It was morning of the third day after he'd been shot.

Killian was resting peacefully on his bed when a knock sounded on his door and Adam entered his room. “Sir...I have some information and you’re not going to like it.” He closes the door behind him and sits beside Killian in a chair. “I’ve been asking myself why the alliance has been targeting us so heavily this past week. So, while you and Star were on that planet, I took some hair dna off of Star’s bed and ran it through the database. I just got a hit.”

Adam hands him a datapad with a criminal pic of Star holding her prisoner i.d. number. Her hair was longer in the picture and was blue instead of pink. “Her real name is Anee Starla Lane. She was arrested for blowing up an alliance shuttle with a senator and his family on board. She was in solitary confinement for 7 months before they assigned her the Death Penalty. Then, see here," He scrolls up on the datapad, "She escaped three weeks ago. She used our ship to escape and now they think we’re helping a fugitive terrorist and murderer!” Adam looked pissed off.

“We should turn her in. She’s got a 200k bounty on her head and we could use a score like that, not to mention getting the alliance off our tails.”
 
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(Looks fine to me)


The captain sat up in the bed. His shoulder still hurt and he had an occasional seep from between the stitches which he still hadn't noticed were pink. Seemed that the infection had complicated a few things. Looking over at Adam he just frowned. "Hmmm..." Settling back into the bed he closed his eyes and thought for a minute. "Well that's where its a bit unfortunate. We're all wanted too. Remember?" Killian didn't exactly have a clean record and neither did the other two. They were wanted for murder as well though it wasn't quite that fancy of a job. "Pull your head out of your ass."

For the most part the alliance had been causing them trouble for a while. It was unlucky that they got this lady and made it worse. Killian turned over in his bed and went back to sleep. He figured that he could rest a little more. So far they weren't in trouble and he felt sick though quite a bit better.

Mike just happened to be waiting outside with another little cup of juice. That was what the captain liked with his medication. "Another round." The man was hardly feeling charitable. He noticed that the captain was milking it now that there was somebody to fuss over him. Instead he decided to take over the medication run this time. Pushing the door open to Killian's room he set the little glass and pills down.

"Just leave it there." Groaning a little Killian turned in his bed to see it was Mike. Outside the door Adam was laughing and the captain sat up. "Son of a bitch you had to do it."

"Yep." Mike chuckled. "Just take your medicine captain. Get better soon. I know you don't feel good." Batting his eyelashes he gave a lousy imitation of Star. "Oooh and I gave you pink stitches."

Killian frowned at him and finished taking the pills. Sucking down the last of the juice he smirked. "She wouldn't..." By the look on Mike's face he thought he might check. Wincing he peeled the bandage back and he turned shades of red. Getting off the bed in a more lively manner than would have been expected he went storming toward the kitchen. "Star!"
 
"I didn't do it!" Star raises her hands innocently. "They said they wanted to be the ones to bring you your medicine this time, so I let 'em. If they put something in it, I wasn't involved."
 
The other two wandered behind Killian at a safe distance to smirk. They knew it was coming. Peering round the edge of the wall into the kitchen they could see that the woman was completely clueless.

"I don't give a shit if they came to my room to be bastards. Its just the way they are." Grumbling he peeled the bandage back. "That's what I'm talking about! Pink fucking stitches. You...you....Agh!" Turning around he met the other two at the door and shook his head. "Laugh it up." Despite the lively few moments he still felt lousy. Killian did finally put a shirt on. He couldn't really move his shoulder so it took a while of wrestling with the shirt to get it on. It was button up so that helped. Since he'd officially been found out he decided to join them all at the kitchen for the evening meal.
 
"Pink stitches? That's what you're upset about!?" Star laughed heartily with the other members of the crew, though Adam had gone a bit quieter when looking at Star.
"Well, since you're up and out of your bed, you must be feeling better. Dinner?" She served up the meal on the table sitting next Killian with Adam's keeping a close eye on her, though for whatever reason she didn't know.

"Adam said we're getting close to the Ontarian Space Station. Its supposed to be the largest station this side of the milky way galaxy. I'm soo excited. We're going to get to explore it, right?" Star asks excitedly, flicking her pink hair out of her eyes.
 
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